Every autumn the Isle of Wight Car Club hold their annual event where drivers have to not only be fast but consistent over 2 days if they want their name on the coveted Turbine Trophy. For many years the Austin Healey Club have been making their annual pilgrimage to try and wrestle the coveted Turbine Trophy from the Isle of Wight Car Club.
Saturday’s event was held at BAE Systems in Northwood. This venue allows drivers to push the limits of traction as there is plenty of room in this large spacious car park.

The Healey boys and girls always bring some entertaining cars and this year amongst the smattering of very fast MX5s there was a Mini pick up and an amazing looking Ford Cortina that, if you squinted from a long distance, looked just like a Dodge Charger.

Ricky Sheppard was looking to retain the turbine trophy for another year. Driving Steve Wells’ Sub Zero, he was the fastest driver in round one. Chris Wilson was not far behind followed by Ryan Munt who was back out of retirement in his MX5 turbo powered Locost.The track was open and wide allowing drivers to push their cars and by round 4 many drivers pushed a little too hard and cars were dropping like flies.
Ricky Sheppard was knocking on the door of a sub minute time but managed to shear 2 rose joints in the rear suspension of Steve’s Sub Zero, putting them both out of action.
Gordon Clark driving the Cortina Charger was unable to perform a correct test all morning and on round 4 broke his rear axle. Despite our club members trying to find someone who could supply spares for a 3ltr capri axle, Gordon decided to call the tow truck and call it a day.
Chris Greenen in round 4 finished in the stop box in a cloud of smoke and only at that point did everyone realise that the oil cooler hose on their Mini had come off and deposited oil over everything in their engine bay but also half the track.
After lots of kitty litter and hard scrubbing the venue was re-opened for action, however, nobody managed to get close to the time set by Ricky Sheppard back in round 3 giving Ricky the honours of standing on the top step of the podium winning round 12 and a 0.92 second lead over Ryan Munt who finished 2nd. 3rd place went to Steve Wells who had also bagged a very good time before Ricky broke his car. Fastest lady was Hannah Thompson and the fastest Healey driver was Oliver Chatham in his very modified MX5.
We are now trying hard to acknowledge our class winners because it’s just as hard to win against your peers in your class as it is for the fastest drivers to win the event. From now on class winners are given a class winner sticker and asked to join in with the podium photograph. Class 2 winner was James Robbins in his Clio, class 3 winner was Adam Greenen in his classic Mini, class 4 was Danny Grist in his race MX5 and of course class 5 was Ricky Sheppard in Steve’s Sub Zero.
The champagne presented to the podium was kindly donated by Young Plumbing.
Most drivers either went home for an early night or stayed up all night fixing their cars but you can be assured the Healy boys and girls did neither, they are renowned for partying the night away.

Day two at the College car park is a much tighter venue and with many raised curbs there is little room for error and more suited to the smaller more agile cars. And normally power sliding and drifting is a no no, however nobody told this Kevin and Zack Lower who had joined us for the Healey weekend in their fantastic mk2 RS200 Escort. These boys have the skill and talent to thread this car around the circuit in a ballet of sideways action and the onlookers love them for it.
It was good to see Richard Weaver bring his Suzuki Swift to Sunday’s event and Steve Wells managed to get his car fixed over night. Sunday looked like it was going to be an epic battle for the coveted Turbine trophy award.
However, it was Chris Greenen in his classic Mini who postest the fastest time in round one followed by Jo Moore and then Richard Weaver. All the top names from Saturday seemed to be having issues. To Win the Turbine trophy you need to not only be fast but consistent as the times from each day are added together and the lowest combined time wins.

Adam Greenen took the lead in round 2 but Ryan Munt finally managed a clean round in run 3 and placed the fastest time so far.
Gerald Wilby our resident Healy competitor was joined by only one other Healey this weekend in the form of Hylton Read is his amazing Healy 3000. Both are vey brave men driving their very expensive classic cars around this venue, however, we are glad they choose to.
Ricky Sheppard and Steve Wells were out of contention for the trophy this year as they were well down the table on day two and by run 5 Ryan Munt had it in the bag with no need to do a 6th run, however, he did as there is no greater pleasure than humiliating your competitors by showing them you can go even faster if you wanted to.

Ryan as expected took the top step of the podium for the day also being the fastest in class 5. Adam Greenen took second place and the fastest in class 2 and Chris Wilson took the 3rd step. Wayne Hole won class 3 and Jo Moore class 4.
The champagne presented to the podium was again kindly donated by Young Plumbing.
The weekend results and presentations were held at the Bargmans Rest in Newport.
Hannah was presented with the fastest lady of the weekend award. Jack Chatham was the fastest classic (tax exempt) car from the Healey group in his classic min pickup, the fastest modern car was Sam Steeper in his MX5. The Spirit of the Weekend award went to Hilton in his Austin Healey 3000. The Isle of Wight Car Club’s class 2 was won by Wayne Hole in his MX5, class 3 by Adam Greenen, class 4 by Jo Moore and our event winner, who also took home the coveted Turbine trophy, was Ryan Munt.
As always we would like to thank the Austin Healey Club for continuing to support the Isle of Wight Car Club in this historic event and we look forward to seeing them again next year.
The club final championship event will be held at Fort Street in Sandown on the 24th of November. Please see our website for more details

3-4 November 2018
For longer than anyone can remember, members of the Austin Healey Club have made an annual pilgrimage to the Isle Of Wight.
A weekend of fun and motorsport currently featuring two days of sealed surface autotesting in a bid to win the coveted Turbine Trophy which is awarded to the driver with the fastest combined time for the two events.
This year is comprised of round 12 and round 13 of the Isle Of Wight Car Club Autotest Championship. Entry for the whole weekend is just £24 and open to any member of an ACSMC or ASWMC affiliated club. Just visit the pages for each round to pay for your entry in advance.

Round 10 of the Isle of Wight Car Club calendar brought us back to Haslet Farm. In the past we have used 3 different fields at this venue, however, this time it was the nearest field to the sand pit and included a steep hill with fantastic views at the top, although driving between the cones required lots of concentration, so I can imagine not many had time to take in the beautiful vistas.
With 13 drivers rearing to go the event started on lush green grass and those in the standard class were wishing they were allowed to run knobblies. However, it did not take long for the soil to be exposed and grip thankfully was not an issue.
In run one as expected a Subaru topped the times – Dean Long was driving Jon Barret’s clubby and was putting his skills as a national rally driver to good use with a time of 28.90. But who was second? No, not a another Subaru or a single seater special (by the way Chris Wilson did not attend this event as he was very hung over), it was Steve Glass in his class 4 Honda. Steve was only a second behind Dean and well ahead of the rest of the other competitors.
In run 2 Dean pushed too hard incurring a penalty for striking a cone and it was Jo Moore in his Subaru who took the lead and dropping the top time to only 1.17. Steve Brett in his class 3 classic Mini was now in second place.
Run 3 found Dean Long, Jo Moore and Jon Barret all incurring time penalties allowing Steve to retain his lead and Wayne Hole to take second place in his class 4 Ford Focus.
The battle for the day’s class 2 honours was between Louise Wren and Shane Parry in their Ford Puma and Hannah Thomson and Kevin Richardson in their Suzuki Ignis. All were competing under the PCA rule, so were both drivers and passengers. Hannah was obviously enjoying herself as here laughter whilst driving could be heard back at race control.
Hannah and Louise were also in competition to see who could win the fastest lady of the day award. Hannah was ahead all day, however, on her last run Louise found some time and was in for a real chance of taking the lead but just missed out finishing an incredible 1 tenth of a second behind, giving Hannah the win.
Kevin was also passenger for Steve in class 3 again, showing Steve the way and preventing him from making any wrong tests.
In class 4 Jon Barrett and Dean Long were also taking advantage of the PCA rule being a passenger for each other. It is slowly becoming clear that any weight disadvantage of carrying a passenger can easily be out weighed by having someone guide you through the course and pushing you on to go faster. With this Jon Barret now topped the leader board at the end of round 4.
Class 5 is for cars that do not fit into the modified production car classes and is the domain of the single seater specials driven by Andy Williams and Josh Finch and highly modified cars such as Dan Young’s ex autograss classic mini. These specialist cars normally rule the roost but is seems all wheel drive could not be beaten today.
At the close of the event non of the top 3 drivers could improve on their 5th run times and Jon Barret finished 3rd in a time of 1:09.20, Jo Moore claimed the 2nd step with a time of 1:08.76 and only 8 hundredths of a second ahead was Dean Long.
All podium finishers were presented with champagne supplied by our podium sponsor Young Plumbing.
In a departure from the norm it has been decided to honour our class winners as well. Not only do they get a hand shake from our club chairman and stand next to the podium for the promotional photo, they will also be issued with a class winner sticker. This will hopefully help acknowledge that it is just as hard to win your class as it is to win overall.
Our next event is also an unsealed event on the 28th of October at Knighton Sand Pit. Don’t forget the big event of the year our Healy weekend on the 3rd and 4th of November. This is a 2 day sealed surface event. Day one is at BAE systems and the Sunday is at the Isle of Wight College. You can enter and treat these venues as individual championship events, however, we will also combine the time of individual drivers over the weekend and the lowest combined time will win the coveted Turbine trophy. Please invite your friends to watch or better still take part.

Round 9 of the Isle of Wight Car Club calendar was an unsealed surface event held at Atherfield.
This has always been a popular venue, however, what seems to be growing in popularity is the number of competitors signing up to drive with a passenger. Under the MSA’s PCA rule, drivers can compete with a passenger to help guide them through the course, help with driving techniques or just for fun. This is starting to make events much more accessible and fun for all. So if you would like to take part in a PCA, just ask during sign on at the next event.
As a complete contrast to our last trip to Atherfield, the sun was out and the grass was dry. As usual it did not take long for the top layer of green grass to erode to reveal a grippy dirt path for all to follow. Any driver who ventured off this well-worn track later would soon loose traction, so the name of the game in the afternoon was to keep it on the brown stuff.
At the start of round 1 many competitors held back wanting to learn the course by watching other drivers. Wayne Hole as usual knew the course right off the bat and was the first off the line, posting a very respectable first run of 2 minutes 10 seconds.
It was good to see a class 1 car again with Steve Brookes and Rich Harrison piloting their standard Fiesta. At the end of the day it was Rich who posted the fasted time out of the two finishing 13th overall.

In class 2 it was great to see the return of Louise Wren and Shane Parry in their Ford Puma and Barry and Kevin Richardson driving their Suzuki Ignis, with the latter claiming class honours and finishing 15th overall.
Kevin was also in class 3, however, not driving. He was navigating for Steve Brett in his classic Mini, as Steve was unsure of the course. Both had great fun pretending they were on a rally stage. Steve was the only car in class 3 and finished 10th overall.

Class 4 was the most popular class of the day with 10 drivers competing in modified cars over 1400cc.
Hannah Thomson and Vicky Cox were not only battling in class 4 but also for the title of fastest lady of the day. Sharing Vicky’s 205 and being a passenger for each other, with Vicky’s guidance Hannah’s times consistently improved during the day, However, Vicky’s experience and skill allowed her to claim the bubbly at the podium celebrations and finish 7th place over all.
It was the Subaru of Jon Barrett (affectionally known as Clubby) that dominated this class. Also driven by Dean and Tony Long this car had grip and power allowing Dean to win the event with a whopping 1.74 seconds over second place and Jon took the third step of the podium ahead of Wayne in his Focus who finished 4th.

There were a smattering of mechanical incidents during the day, mainly due to Josh Finch. Josh was unable to bring his special to the event as he doesn’t have a suitable trailer, so Andy Williams offered him a drive in his special. Credit where credit is due, Josh drove Andy’s special like a demon and Andy was very impressed with how Josh’s driving skills have developed, right up to the point where he managed to drive over the rear mud flaps and totally mangle the rear arches (just like he did to his own special at the Autocross).

Then Ricky Sheppard said “Josh – You can borrow my 205” – Josh jumped at the chance, lined up Ricky’s class 4 Peugeot on the start line, dumped the clutch and promptly destroyed a CV joint.
In a domino effect, Wayne after finishing his last run of the day said “Ricky – You can borrow my Focus” – Ricky jumped at the chance, lined up Wayne’s class 4 Focus on the start line, dumped the clutch and promptly destroyed a CV joint. Oh how we laughed.

Despite having mangled rear mudguards Andy Williams seized second place in his special.
Standing on the podium with Jon and Dean he felt the full force of the bubbly supplied by our podium sponsor Young Plumbing.

We would also like to thank Alan Marsh for some amazing images of the event.
Our next event is also an unsealed surface event at Haslet Farm on the 30th of September.
See our website for more details.

The Isle of Wight Car Clubs 8th event and 3rd Sealed Surface event of 2018 was held at the Isle of Wight College. On the 2nd of September.
From round 1 Ricky Sheppard was on form placing a time over 8 seconds faster than anyone else, even faster than the owner of the car he was driving, Steve Wells. However, by run 2 Steve had closed the gap to within a second. On this sunny September day, it looked like one of these gentlemen would be taking home the win and it was only a mater of time before we found out which one it would be.
With no drivers in class 1 (unmodified under 1400cc) the battle in the non-modified cars title fell to the two MX5s in class 2 (unmodified under 1400cc). The father and son team of Barry and Kevin Richardson not only shared their car, they also sat beside each other as they went round in what is none as the PCA class, this allows drivers and passengers to better understand the course, give each other some coaching or guidance and it makes the event very sociable. If you would like to drive with a passenger, please ask for more information at your next event. Neither of these drivers could match the speed of Wayne Hole in his MX5, who not only won class 2 but also finished 8th overall.
There was also a car share in class 3 (modified under 1400cc) with Dean Masterton and Gary Wetherick in their Suzuki Cappuccino, however, being in the modified class, they had totally stripped the car of any unnecessary interior, including the passenger seat so they were driving solo. David Goodwin was also competing in the same clas, but has recently made his car a little heavier now that he has started to remove some of the rust in his classic mini buy replaced the entire back panel. It was Gary Wetherick who was consistently faster in this group and deservedly collected fastest class 3 and finished 5th overall.
Class 4 (modified over 1400cc) consisted Jo Moore and Jon Barrett in their AWD Subaru Impreza’s and Toby Allan in his Turbo Mx5. Despite having more power and four wheel drive the subarus could not match the agility of Toby in his MX5. Toby not only took the class win but finished 4th overall, missing out on the podium by 1.94 seconds.
Steve Glass in his Honda Motorbike powered Fiat Cinquecento and Josh Finch in his MGF powered single seater special were both having teething problems with their cars in Class 5 cars (non production or heavily modified cars). But what looked like a guaranteed win for either Ricky or Steve was not to be as after a shaky start Chris Wilson leaped frogged them both in run 4, this run put him in the lead by 0.77 seconds for the rest of the day letting him stand on the top step of the podium. After a few wrong tests Steve managed to beat his fellow driver (always a relief when it is your car) and stood on the second step 1.61 seconds ahead of Ricky who claimed the 3rd step.
In a break form from tradition, these three made a gentleman’s agreement not to shower each other with Champaign supplied by our podium sponsor Young Plumbing but to drink the bubbly from cups toasting each others success.
The next event on the Isle of Wight Car Club calendar is an unsealed surface event at Atherfield on the 16th of September. This large, flat open grass field that is very kind to road cars is perfect for anyone wishing to have their first go at an unsealed surface event

“Take it easy, learn the course and remember nobody wins an event on their first run.”, wise words and often heard during the drivers’ briefing.
However, today was the day this advice was wrong.

The normal format for Atherfield is the first few runs are very slow as drivers slip and slide over the short lush grass and as the day progresses a nice dusty and grippy trail gets cut into the surface and the times plummet and the final run is often the quickest.
After weeks of unbroken sunshine, club members were looking forward to the fast open and often dusty unsealed surface event but this Sunday was awash with heavy rain and high winds. 14 competitors braved the conditions and lined up at the start of a very wet grass field.

Wayne Hole is known for being one of the first drivers to put a time on the board, while others prefer to stand back and watch drivers go round because they are not yet sure of the course. Wayne posted a respectable time and with this time topped the table at the close of round 1 in his class 4 Ford Focus. So far nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
By the mid way point, drivers were still slipping and sliding, knocking over cones. This was made even more difficult for class 1 and 2 cars as they are required to run on standard road tires and with those grip was non existent. But it soon became apparent that not only were cars still struggling, everyone’s time seemed to be getting slower.

Where normally the grass would have been ripped out from the top soil, the grass was just being compacted and making a mushy boggy mess.
Studying the timing screens at race control, competitors were amazed to see Wayne was still top of the leader board with that first run of the day.

We also welcomed the return of Vicky Cox who has been absent from the club for over a year but who put the lads in much more powerful cars in their place by not only claiming fastest lady of the day award, she was also the highest placed driver with a passenger (PCA) and 4th overall.

Despite it being a miserable and horrible day, it also proved entertaining, in part due to Jamie Duff, who, after his MX5 died soon after round 1, went home and returned with a Mercedes SLK AMG and in front of amazed onlookers drove the car around the muddy field on its rev limiter as it was stuck in first gear.

With the event coming to a close, and the rain still falling, the final runs seemed impossible to drive the event closed with an amazing realisation.
As far as we are aware Isle of Wight Car Club history was made where the first car out in round one also produced the fastest time of the day. Now that’s a record Wayne can be proud of. Second place went to Jo Moore in his all wheel drive Subaru Impreza and Andy Williams claimed the 3rd step in his class 5 single seater special.

Thank you to Young Plumbing for sponsoring the podium and supplying the bubbly.
The next Isle of Wight Car Club event is the Autocross weekend on the 11th and 12th of August. This is an event not to miss. Spectators are more than welcome and if you are quick you can even enter as a driver. Please go to our website www.iowcc.co.uk for more information.

After a successful first outing at Cheverton Chalk Pit we were invited back to this amazing venue for round 6 and the 3rd unsealed surface event of 2018.
This fast and dusty chalk pit is a hit with competitors and now spectators thanks to the raised viewing platform in this natural amphitheater.
Only 14 drivers competed during this round but with the reduced number of competitors even the drivers at the back of the field are collecting decent points and we all know what points mean.
In class 1 new member Will Melon returned to have a go at his first unsealed event, however, this time he brought his mate Marcin Anszczak in his Nissan Micra. These two drove this little car with gusto and managed to finish 11th and 12th with Marcin taking the win in this class.
Tony and Dean Long returned, this time back in a class 2 MX5. Dean has always been fast in these little cars and his driving style is mesmerizing. However, he was obviously having too much fun drifting around the big piles of chalk as he incurred penalties in in his final 2 runs but despite this finished 1st in class and 4th overall.
A cheer went up first thing in the morning when Steve Brett drove into the pits. Steve has been absent for some time and it was great to see him thrash his classic Mini between the cones once more. Steve had no class battle to contend with as he was the only car in class 3 and finished 6th overall.
On the other hand, we had a skirmish in class 4 as 5 drives were fighting for class honors. In a mix of cars ranging from Steve Glass in his Toyota Corolla to James Bolan in his Peugeot and Wayne Hole in his Ford Focus who out performed much more powerful cars and achieved a PB by standing on the podium for the first time in 2nd place overall. Barry Richardson experienced a first at this event by driving a much more powerful car than he is used to thanks to Jo Moore letting him drive his Subaru Impreza. Jo has owned his Subaru for 10 months now and has obviously got to grips with it as he also hit a personal best and on his 5th run posted the fastest time of the day crowning him as the overall event winner.
Class 5 cars, however, struggled but Andy Williams was more than pleased to spray bubbly supplied by our sponsors Young Pluming from the 3rd step of the podium.

Not feeling one with the course and worried about damaging his special before the up and coming Autocross Chris Wilson sacrificed championship points by retiring midway through the event.
The USS championship is now wide open with Andy Williams leading Jo Moore by only 5 points.
The next unsealed event is on the 29th of July at Atherfield. This wide open flat grass field has to be ranked as the best venue on our calendar, suitable for road cars with road tyres, so if you have always fancied at unsealed event, don’t miss out.